“It’s blinking a lot now,” Robin pointed out.
“Everyone can see that!” Jennifer snapped.
“Hey, look over there! It’s a bug with a tail,” Buff Dude said.
Robin jumped in place. “That’s her! That’s the gnat that stole my daggers. You’re in for it, fairy.”
“Actually,” Arden said, raising her voice so it would carry. “I’m a pixie.” She snapped her fingers and switched on her Disguise. Her humanoid form would allow her to be able to go toe-to-toe against these fools more easily. Although she didn’t have strength on her side, she did have straight-up trickery.
50 mana down and draining. I have to play this smart.
She held out her hand, the dagger materializing into it from her Inventory. Arden knocked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
“Give that back to me this instant,” Robin said. “Maybe if you do, I’ll reconsider killing your dungeon.”
“My dungeon?” Arden scoffed. “You’re making a lot of assumptions there. What makes you think I’m associated with this dungeon? I could be hanging out here, for all you know.”
“The cat ears and tail, for one,” Jennifer said.
“I should’ve phrased that better. What made you so sure I was with this dungeon, to the point where you showed up here to hunt me?” Arden asked.
“I told my guildmates all about what you did. It fits your kind’s M.O. Apparently, when dungeon companions get desperate, they lead adventurers into their dungeons. You trick people and take advantage of them,” Robin said. “You pretend to be a meek, scared woman when you’re actually a monster.”
“It happened to Evangeline when she was living up north. She was tricked in the same way,” Buff Dude said.
Arden tilted her head. “In the northern region? I guess that could’ve been me. I used to live there.”
“It sounds like something you would’ve done because you did do it. You didn’t even change your costume! You think you would’ve changed your look a little bit more than adding cat ears and a tail. Please,” Robin said. “Give me a break.”
“I swear, everyone’s a cat girl these days,” Buff Dude said.
“First off,” Arden held up her middle finger, a Bellstrang sign for I hope your skull gets ground into dust and blown away in the wind. “Second off, this look is me taking pride in my dungeon. It has nothing to do with trends. I could’ve just as easily been a slime girl or a magical schoolgirl. So what?”
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Let’s get on with it and kill her already.”
“I’d rather talk for a moment. It’s nice getting to know you. Wanna talk about our feelings?” Arden asked. “I’m sensing a lot of hostility from you guys over the daggers thing. Somebody died for them, right? Did it happen in a dungeon?”
“Shut up,” Robin growled.
Arden went on, “Because if it did happen in a dungeon, he should’ve dropped a golden skull. Did no one pick it up and go on his respawn quest? Boo hoo. Must’ve been one strong dungeon if you quit without Talon’s skull. Which dungeon was it? I’d love to meet them.”
“Don’t you dare say Talon’s name!” Robin shouted. “Keep his name out of your filthy mouth.”
Jennifer placed her hand on Robin’s arm. “She’s trying to get a reaction out of us. Don’t give her the satisfaction.”
“Yeah,” Buff Dude said. “Ignore her. You’re above this.”
Robin patted his rock solid hair. “Alright, alright, I’m cool, I’m cool.”
“But I would looooove it if we talked some more,” Arden said with a smile. “Besides, it’s not like it was a one-sided deal. I gave you that Kazzipur town scroll in exchange for the daggers. That makes us even.”
“I’m done talking with you. I’m going to kill you and take my daggers back. Where’s the other one?” Robin asked. “I demand them both.”
“I’ll let you find out if you kill me.” Arden’s smile widened.
“Stand back,” Robin said, cracking his neck (too bad he didn’t crack it open). “She’s mine.”
Arden beckoned him to come closer. Robin got into an offensive stance, one foot in front of the other, his hands tight around his daggers’ handles. His comrades became the audience to their duel. Buff Dude was neutral-mouthed and wide-eyed. Jennifer’s tension appeared in the white-knuckle gripping of her magical staff. Either she was worried for Robin or she was itching to join the fight.
Daggers held in front of him, Robin charged for Arden. Just as they met, he struck out with his dagger. Arden slapped it away with her weapon, his slice missing and going wide.
Robin’s other hand came in for a follow-up hit, the blade swinging dangerously close to Arden. She dodged, giving his swing a wide berth. Then she stepped in to cut him, her blade moving in a wild arc.
He backed out of her way. Arden decreased their distance, still moving to hit him. Robin deflected her blade, his fighting experience showing and hers sadly not. She misstepped from the force of his deflection. Robin stabbed downwards, aiming at her shoulder. She ducked in time for him to scrape through her sleeve.
Robin shoved his knee into her. Arden doubled back. Robin tossed his blades upwards like a juggler, catching them with ease. A cocky and oh-so-punchable smirk found its way onto his face.
“You’re entertaining, I’ll give you that,” he said.
“What do you put in your hair to make it as tough as a woven rug?” Arden asked. She flicked her wrist. “Inquiring minds want to know.”
Robin roared in annoyance before running at her again.
He went straight through her and bounced into the dirt wall behind where she stood.
The real Arden, having faked him out with a Hallucination, slammed her dagger into his back. Sadly, it didn’t ignite in him, but it did make him scream. That was a nice bonus. Arden yanked it out of him, then spun away to escape his reach.
Robin called her a bad name for doing that. Boo freakin’ hoo. He clutched his wound, his eyes burning with the utmost fury at her cheap shot.
“You mad?” Arden blew him a raspberry.
“Kill her!” he ordered his companions.
Arden turned in time to see Jennifer raise her staff. An electro-ball powered out of it, hurling towards her direction. Others followed, one after the other. She let go of her Disguise, reverting back to her original form. Her dive to avoid it was unsuccessful. The first blast clipped her, knocking her out of the air. On the way down, her body seized from the electrical shot.
The rest of Jennifer’s volley of energy balls, though, happened to hit her party member.
Robin wailed.
“Sorry!” Jennifer cried.
Buff Dude grunted. He tried to find Arden with his ax, hoping to introduce her to his blade. The oaf swung the ax like he was trying to swat a fly. And like a fly, Arden escaped his hits.
What she wasn’t able to escape were the gusts winds buffeting from his chopping. The air threw her around, her head rattling as she struggled to right herself.
“I’ve got her!” Robin bellowed. He shoved Buff Dude to the side.
“Don’t touch me!” the other man yelled.
Adding Robin’s daggers to the mix wasn’t good for Arden’s stomach. Every time Buff Dude swung at her, the wind carried her upwards. She’d go into freefall, then Robin would try to strike her. His daggers missed, but they added to the torrents that she was trapped in. She kind of felt like a ball in a game of catch where no one was actually catching anything. They threw her around.
“Step back! I’ve got her,” Jennifer said.
Not wanting to fry, Arden activated her Teleport to Room spell. She returned to Minette’s room. Minette had less energy swirling around her orb of a head/body. She was the darkest color Arden had ever seen her become. All in all, she looked pretty pissed off. Her negativity radiated off of her.
Arden’s hair stood on end, thanks to Jennifer’s electro-blasts. The static crackled as she tried to smooth it down. “What’s the status of
our cattens?”
Minette didn’t answer.
“Look.” Arden sighed. “I only sudo’d you because we were struggling back there. You’re going to thank me later.”
Long pause, still no answer.
“Fine, I’ll check it myself. The sudo command lets me do that, anyway. I don’t need you.”
She knew she was acting very Dungeon Pixie Kindergarten-ish right now, but she set those feelings aside. Arden had their lives to save. She may have looked like a petulant child in the process, but her likeability was a necessary sacrifice.
Back in Overview mode, she took a glance at the adventuring group. They were squabbling about Arden’s whereabouts.
Robin picked up the dagger she dropped.
“Calypso Frank,” Arden swore, taking the late dungeon bard’s name in vain.
“You’re still dead to me!” Robin shouted. He waved the dagger in the air. “Come back and face us.”
“No,” she sharply said, setting her volume to be heard throughout the dungeon. “Why don’t you go home?”
“I’m destroying your Dungeon Heart if you don’t tell me where my other dagger is!”
“You don’t have to shout. I can hear everything,” Arden said.
“I wonder why the dungeon isn’t speaking,” Jennifer mused.
“Maybe it’s a shy dungeon?” Buff Dude shrugged.
“This pixie never shuts up,” the magician said.
“Where’s my dagger?” Robin screamed.
“Neither does Robin,” Buff Dude said.
“They’re perfect for each other,” Jennifer said.
Arden threw out a villainous laugh. “You can try to find our Dungeon Heart if you dare! You’re not getting another dagger from me.”
“Then, prepare to die,” Robin snarled. “Let’s go, team.”
Arden checked over the Cattenery. Two of the cattens had finished. They awaited orders. She borrowed Minette’s Influence skill to move them to the pit trap area. The other cattens were already lurking around there, waiting for the adventurers to arrive.
Five against three would be a decent fight, especially with her as the puppeteer. Two more cattens would be on their way, improving their odds.
Waiting for them to reach the pit trap area afforded them a little bit of extra time. Arden was borrowing minutes wherever and however she could.
By the time the adventurers reached the pit zone, the first of the last two cattens joined the growing group. The adventuring party was in for a little surprise later.
Robin wielded his augmented dagger alongside one of his presumed-to-be regular ones. Its addition to the fight would make things trickier, but it didn’t mean that Robin and his friends were going to definitely win.
Arden made sure of that by sending two cattens his way. She Influenced the other pair to give Jennifer something to deal with. No one needed her blasting electro-energy all over the place, nor did anyone need her using her aura trick.
That left a single catten for Buff Dude. Rather than engaging warrior directly, the catten ran circles around him. It feinted each of its attacks, never quite reaching the brute. The point was to tire him out, and run him in circles so he wouldn’t notice what was happening with his teammates. Arden wasn’t going to let them bail each other out.
Jennifer activated her aura skill as expected. The two cattens weaved this way and that way in order to avoid her energy blasts. Her shield made it difficult for them to get close to her, but that wasn’t in the cards for them, anyway. Their goal was to grind Jennifer down. Once she ran out of mana, she’d be revealed to be the glass cannon she very likely was.
Robin was another issue altogether. His agility put him on par with the two cattens he faced. It was his pride that they needed to trip him up on. As shown with his short fight against Arden, he was quick to anger. Since the cattens didn’t know how to naturally do that, Arden relied on Minette’s Influence skill to nudge them in the right direction. Green circles lighting up beneath them, the cattens fought against the rogue.
One catten shoulder-rushed Robin. The other stooped low behind him. Robin stepped back to avoid the incoming tackle. He wound up tripping over that second catten and falling onto his butt. His cheeks instantly reddened. He used his vaulting skill to backflip over the two creatures. When he landed, he traced a half circle with his dagger.
The blade connected with the nearest catten.
It burned bright, its fur lighting on fire. It screeched and howled in pain, its body writhing to rid itself of the flames. Arden tried to command it with her Influence, but she failed to get through to the creature.
Jennifer managed to hit one of the cattens going against her. It whimpered, staggering for a moment. Just as her aura fell from her lack of mana, the remaining catten launched at her. Jennifer fell to the ground.
Her cry for help got Buff Dude’s attention. His distraction cost him a piece of his leg as the catten he’d been fighting tore it open.
Blue lights engulfed Buff Dude’s hands. He grabbed the catten that had bit him, then threw it haphazardly towards where the pits were. Unaffected by the pit traps, it skidded across the ground before recovering.
The warrior rushed over to protect Jennifer.
Meanwhile, Robin still had his hands full with the two cattens. Although crispy and sporting a terribly low 10 health points out of its original 30, the burnt catten rose. Its charred skin crusted to its face. Clumps of its fur sloughed off along with skin and fatty layer. Its health was falling rapidly, but it made a last-ditch effort at attacking Robin.
Robin kicked at it, its neck snapping. It exploded into glitter dust.
The other catten was fast as it followed up its fallen partner’s attack. Its claws slashed through Robin’s pants legs, dragging lines of fresh blood from the rogue.
He retaliated with swipes from his dagger. They caught the catten in the side.
Buff Dude pulled a catten off of Jennifer. The other one stayed at her legs, ripping through them as she screamed for help. He slammed his ax into its back, the damage unfortunately critical to the creature. It wailed in agony, its anguished cries joining Jennifer’s for an off-kilter duet.
The catten thrown to the pit area rushed to jump back into the fray. It chose Buff Dude and Jennifer as its targets.
“Getting overwhelmed here!” Buff Dude yelled.
Jennifer’s eyes glazed over, a sign that she was looking through her Inventory.
Arden directed the cattens to focus on attacking her. Buff Dude huddled low to shield her, opting to knock the cattens away with his ax. Their close, tight quarters made swinging his ax difficult. He couldn’t bring his arm back without a catten jumping on him.
The dungeon pixie wanted to dance to the rhythm of their distress and then bathe in their blood afterwards.
The closest she could get to that was switching out of Overview mode and flying her way to where the combat was taking place. She wanted Robin to see her face as she mocked them for their loss. It wasn’t enough to let her laughter boom over the environment.
By the time she arrived, the catten that Robin had been fighting had perished into a flurry of glitter dust. She clapped her hands for attention. His companions were still too busy trying to ward off the three cattens that remained.
In Jennifer’s case, though, she was busy doing a poor job of trying to crawl away from them.
“You,” Robin said.
“Me.” Arden pointed at herself.
“I’ll squish you into fairy dust!”
“Shouldn’t you be helping your friends?” Arden crossed her arms, her wings fluttering to keep her at his eye level, but still at a distance seeing how she was on the opposite end of the hall. Safety first!
“Robin!” Buff Dude’s tone confirmed what Arden suspected. He attempted to pick up a catten and throw it away, his hands unable to get a decent grip. The cattens had him at every corner, their triangular formation closing in on him.
“This isn’t over,” Robi
n said, glowering. He reached his arm back and hurled a dagger at her.
Arden thought she could dodge it.
Thinking’s well and good and all, but if your thoughts don’t have follow-through, then you’ll end up like Arden did. The dagger pinned her wings to the wall. She kicked her legs, fighting the urge to scream welling in her throat.
Her most recently created catten rounded the corner. It bounded towards the adventurers.
“Nearest town scrolls now,” Robin hurriedly said. Three of them, bunched up in his hand, materialized from his Inventory. Ignoring the frenzied cattens, he smacked the paper scrolls against his friends.
The three of them disappeared, teleporting back to Kazzipur.
“Great calamity, I guess we won,” Arden said. She whistled through her teeth.
“Did you now?” A familiar voice shook the dungeon with its volume. That same voice haunted her nightmares, belonging to none other than her head boss, the Demon Lord Oiseau. “We need to talk.”
“You don’t miss a beat, do you?” She laughed nervously at his arrival.
“I’ve temporarily closed your Warp Gate. Let’s have a chat with your Dungeon Heart.” With a snap of his fingers, he appeared in front of her.
He pulled the dagger out of the wall, allowing her to fall into his outstretched palm. Arden sat upon it as the Demon Lord walked to them to Minette’s room.
“You used the sudo command, huh?” the Demon Lord asked, speaking through his beak.
“I can explain.”
Chapter 10
Operations paused in the Trash Tier Dungeon for the time being. The Demon Lord Oiseau froze everything, including resource gathering and the cattens’ journey back to the Monster Lounge. The only things that hadn’t halted were the three of them: Lord, Dungeon Heart, and pixie.
“I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain the gravity of the sudo command to you,” the Demon Lord Oiseau said. His eyes narrowed into slits above his beak. “After all, this is the second time you’ve used it.”
“And I have a good reason for it,” Arden said. She attempted to fly on her own, but her ripped wings wouldn’t allow her to.
“As the Overseer of Bellstrang’s Dungeons, it’s my duty to thoroughly investigate your usage of the sudo command. What state was your dungeon in when you sudo’d her?”
The Trash Tier Dungeon Page 11
